Gara Concept Store

For Fun, Not Profit

100+ Cool Places of Kyiv

One of the presents I was given for Christmas this year was a map of 100+ cool places in Kyiv and yesterday we decided to visit some of them. We were walking through the city and I checked the map and found a listing for a concept store with a note saying I needed to get a password from the store’s web site, which sparked my interest. On their site you are greeted with the following note:

There are no sales and two-for-ones. Nothing effective and multifunctional. And no, we can’t help you. We can only sympathize with those who don’t understand why this is necessary.

This just added to the intrigue, so we made an appointment for 15 minutes later by entering my name and phone and they sent me an SMS with the address and a password. On the way I was trying to find out more information on the store and found out they only let 2 or 3 people inside for every hourly slot and everything is incredibly expensive. Lots of thoughts were crossing through my mind and I had doubts if we should be going given the seemingly exclusivity of it.

We went anyway and we were glad we did. Upon knocking on the door, a woman opened a small window and asked for the password. Once we entered we were asked to take off our coats and asked if we wanted coffee to which we agreed. The 2 girls inside spoke English and were incredibly friendly despite the warning on their site. They showed us to a wall and a clothes rail full of hundreds of glasses, all of which were different and quite quirky to say the least. We were encouraged to try them on and take photos and among them was a £15,000 pair by the same designer that has made pairs for Elton John. Again, we were allowed to try them on, even though they knew we had no intention of buying anything. They also have weird collections of masks, bags and hats, all of which are for sale.

On further reading and questioning the staff, the concept store turns out to be more for fun, then for profit and is owned by local property millionaire, Garik Korogodsky.

It’s a really cool place, so worth a visit. Find out more on http://gara.com.ua/.